I serve as Chairman of the Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade Subcommittee. Among other areas of jurisdiction, the subcommitteeoversees U.S. efforts to manage and coordinate international programs to combat terrorism, and efforts to bring international terrorists to justice. This update provides a daily snapshot of the latest news related to foreign terrorism. For more information on the subcommittee, please clickhere.

A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned the United States on Monday that if it designated the group a terrorist organization and applied new sanctions its action could be perilous for U.S. forces in the region. He did not give details on what form of risk he foresaw for U.S. forces and bases.

A top Kurdish counter-terrorism official said on Monday he was 99 percent sure that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was alive and located south of the Syrian city of Raqqa, after reports that he had been killed. The Pentagon has not been able to confirm his death.

Australia's military will be more readily deployed to respond to "terrorist incidents" on home soil under proposed changes to laws announced by the government on Monday. Under the proposed law changes, state and territory governments would be able to call for military help at any time after a "terror incident" has been declared.

Afghan security forces backed by U.S. air strikes have retaken a southern district from the Taliban as part of a drive to weaken the insurgents' hold on Helmand province and push them back from around its capital, Lashkar Gah, officials said on Monday.

A female suicide bomber killed eight people and wounded 18 on Monday at a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, an area regularly attacked by Boko Haram Islamists, police said.

Pakistan's military has launched a major operation in its volatile tribal areas to stop the ISIS making inroads into areas bordering Afghanistan, the military's spokesman said on Sunday. Pakistan has long denied ISIS has a foothold inside the nuclear-armed nation despite a series of attacks claimed by the group over the past two years, including a bombing in the northern town of Parachinar last month that killed 75.

The head of ISIS in Afghanistan, Abu Sayed, was killed in a strike on the group's headquarters in Kunar province earlier this week, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Indonesia on Friday blocked access to the encrypted messaging service Telegram, citing concerns that it was being used to spread "radical and terrorist propaganda" in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation. Telegram is a messaging platform known to be popular among ISIS sympathizers, who use chatrooms with hundreds of members as well as private conversations.

Tuesday (7.18.17)

German prosecutors said on Tuesday they were checking reports that a 16-year-old German teenager under investigation for supporting ISIS was among five women arrested in the Iraqi city of Mosul. Authorities had launched an investigation of the girl for alleged contacts with the jihadist group about preparation for a possible act of terrorism.

A Palestinian driver rammed his vehicle into a group of Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday and was shot dead by the troops, the Israeli military said. A wave of Palestinian street attacks that began in 2015 has slowed but has not stopped. There was no immediate comment from Palestinian officials.

A suicide car bomber killed four people at a checkpoint in a Kurdish-controlled area of northeastern Syria on Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The area is dominated by the Kurdish YPG militia, the main partner for the U.S.-led coalition in its campaign against ISIS in Syria.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday asked Congress to extend martial law on the southern island of Mindanao until the end of the year, to grant him time to crush a rebel movement inspired by ISIS in the region.

The bodies of eight Malian soldiers killed in an ambush by suspected Islamist terrorists last week have been discovered in the West African nation's desert north, a local lawmaker and army officer said on Monday. Malian soldiers are regularly targeted in attacks by Islamist groups, some of them with links to al Qaeda.

A suicide car bomber wounded five soldiers outside a government army compound in eastern Yemen on Monday, said a local security official who blamed the attack on militant group al Qaeda. The attack in the Ain BaMaabad area was the second by al Qaeda in two days in Shabwa province.

Wednesday (7.19.17)

Singapore has offered a military transport airplane, drone surveillance aircraft and use of combat training facilities to support the Philippines' fight against the rising threat of Islamist terrorism, the defense ministry said on Wednesday. Surrounded by Muslim majority countries and with a Muslim minority of its own, Singapore is worried by the small but dangerous number of people in the region who have been radicalized by ISIS.

Five Philippine presidential guard members were wounded and a paramilitary guard killed on Wednesday in an attack by Maoist rebels disguised as soldiers, security officials said, an incident that could dent a stuttering peace process. The clash at a checkpoint came a day after Duterte asked Congress to extend martial law until the end of the year to tackle rising Islamist terrorist insurgency.

Gunmen on Wednesday shot dead four members of the Shi'ite Muslim minority in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said, in what police suspect was a sectarian attack. No group has so far claimed responsibility.

Egyptian security forces killed a prominent ISIS militant on Tuesday suspected of being involved in recent attacks in North Sinai, an Interior Ministry statement said. Ahmed Hassan Ahmed Al-Nashu, who is known as Ghandur Al-Masri, was responsible for carrying out several operations and recruiting new members for Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, a Sinai-based group which pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014.

The United States slapped new economic sanctions against Iran on Tuesday over its ballistic missile program and said Tehran's "malign activities" in the Middle East undercut any "positive contributions" coming from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord. The statement listed Iranian support for groups including Lebanon's Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas movement, the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Europe's top human rights court ruled on Thursday that online videos considered by a Belgian court to be Islamist hate speech were not protected under free speech provisions. Fouad Belkacem is a Belgian national currently imprisoned for his activities as the head of Sharia4Belgium, an organization banned for recruiting foreign fighters to participate in militant activities in the Middle East. In the videos, Belkacem had called on viewers to "overpower non-Muslims, teach them a lesson and fight them", content the Court called "markedly hateful" and "vehement". He had also called for the violent establishment of Sharia law.

German citizen Peter Steudtner was among those jailed pending trial on terrorism charges by the Turkish government, which Berlin has labeled "absurd." Germany raised the possibility on Wednesday of suspending European Union aid payments to Turkey after summoning Ankara's ambassador to Berlin to protest over the arrest of the six, including Amnesty International's Turkey head Idil Eser.

The number of terrorist attacks worldwide and deaths from such attacks dropped in 2016 for the second straight year, driven by decreases in Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday. The Sunni militant group ISIS was the deadliest terrorist group last year.

The State Department’s newly released Country Reports on Terrorism 2016 points to Pakistan’s ongoing complicity with jihadists in Central and South Asia, including the Afghan Taliban. Despite describing Pakistan as an “important counterterrorism partner,” the State Department blames the country for harboring some of the forces fighting America’s allies in Afghanistan.

The Pakistan military recoiled after Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense called on Pakistan to launched operations against “terrorist centers” throughout the country. Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations branch said that Afghan Ministry of Defense spokesman’s comments that Pakistan is a hub for terrorist activity “is unwarranted and runs counter to Pakistan Army’s efforts for better Pak-Afghan coordination and cooperation.” However, the Taliban’s top leadership has been based inside Pakistan for decades, with the knowledge, approval and support of the military and its Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

Al Shabaab released a propaganda video urging African Muslims to join al Shabaab in Somalia on Tuesday. The video features a Tanzanian foreign fighter, who urges Muslims from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, and Angola to wage jihad in Somalia

Friday (7.21.17)

Bashar al Assad’s regime has long been allied with Iran. But a newly released report by the State Department underscores the degree to which Iran and its terrorist proxies have expanded their footprint in Syria during the war. “There are reportedly about 7,000 Hezbollah fighters in Syria,” according to State’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2016.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri claims that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) are not receiving assistance from the Syrian regime. However, on-the-ground reporting indicates otherwise. The LAF, which is funded by the US, is coordinating militarily with both Hezbollah and Bashar al Assad’s government in Arsal, despite PM Hariri’s claims to the contrary.

The United Arab Emirates on Friday welcomed Qatar's decision to amend its anti-terrorism laws, one of the first positive responses since the UAE and three other Arab countries imposed sanctions on Doha last month. Qatar has set rules for defining terrorism, acts of terrorism, freezing funding and terrorism financing. It has also established national terrorism lists with rules for listing individuals and groups.

Republican and Democratic U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Thursday seeking to increase sanctions on Hezbollah, accusing the powerful Shi'ite Muslim political group of violence in Syria and amassing rockets along Israel's border. The bill, an amendment to existing sanctions on the group, seeks to further restrict its ability to fundraise and recruit, increase pressure on banks that do business with it and crack down on countries, including Iran, that support Hezbollah.

At least 20 Yemeni civilians were killed and many others were wounded when a Saudi-led coalition air strike hit a village in the south, officials from the armed Houthi movement and the government said on Wednesday.